Cross Campus: 4.11.12 & 4.12.12

4.11.12

End of an era? As the English Department’s longtime registrar, Ruben Roman gained a reputation for being kind and friendly. He moved to a new position in the University Registrar’s office in 2010 — a position that has since been eliminated, leaving Roman out of a job. To help Roman find a new job, Tae-Yeoun Keum ’08 has begun circulating a draft letter of recommendation for Roman and is inviting all students who want to help out to sign.

Town-gown stars. On Tuesday, President Richard Levin and New Haven Mayor John DeStefano presented the Yale University Seton Elm-Ivy Awards for improving town-gown relations. Winners of the Seton Elm include Bruno Baggetta, Nan Bartow and Robert Smuts ’01. Winners of the Ivy Award for members of the Yale community include James Boyle ’94, Sarah Demers, Bonnie Fleming, Gordon Geballe ’81, Kurt Zilm and LaTisha Campbell ’12.

Sentenced. John Mazzuto ’70 — the former CEO of automotive chemical company Industrial Enterprises of America, Inc. and a Yale donor — was sentenced to between 1.5 and 4.5 years in prison Tuesday for his part in a $60 million stock fraud scheme, a portion of which was used to make a $1.7 million donation to the Yale baseball program in 2007.

In memoriam. Reed Whittemore ’41, a former U.S. poet laureate and emeritus professor of English at the University of Maryland, died last week at his home in Kensington, Md. He was 92.

Panlist explosion. Another incident of panlist spam occurred Tuesday, when an alum asked to be taken off the journalism_list panlist, starting a chain reaction of requests to be removed that went into the double digits. Even Mark Schoofs ’85, a senior editor at ProPublica who teaches the seminar “Journalism,” requested to be taken off the list.

Celebrating today. Mayor John DeStefano Jr. and delegates from New Haven School Change, New Haven Promise, Solar Youth, New Haven Economic Development Corporation, New Haven Re-Entry Initiative, Shubert Theater, Arts and Ideas Festival and Market New Haven, among others, will visit the State Capitol in Hartford today for New Haven Day.

Also in Hartford. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney will campaign in the state’s capitol today, a day after chief rival Rick Santorum suspended his campaign.

THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY

1962 Yale paleontologist Charles Reed receives a $35,000 grant to study life along the Nubian Nile.

4.12.12

This is your Higgins email. Just after midnight Wednesday morning at the Walgreens on York Street, a man approached the register ostensibly to purchase toothpaste and a chocolate bar. He asked for a pack of cigarettes. When the woman working the checkout stand retrieved the cigarettes, the man handed her a note reading “Give me all the $20.00 bills, and you won’t get hurt.” She handed cash to the the man, who was white and had a blonde goatee, and he took off, according to a Wednesday NHPD press release.

You’re a Mac? Watch out. Yale’s Information Technology Services emailed students on Wednesday to warn them about a Flashback Trojan Virus infecting Mac computers worldwide. Though no computers at Yale have been infected as of last week, more than half a million worldwide have been hit by the virus.

More terror. Around 11 p.m. Wednesday, students in the halls of Osborne Memorial Lab were attacked by an errant bat flying erratically in the foyer. The students were not hurt; the bat’s fate remains unclear.

Busted. Eighteen residents of New Haven and its suburbs were arrested for their alleged affiliation with a crack and cocaine distribution ring connected to New Haven’s Grape Street Crips gang.

A final hurrah? It remains to be seen whether the city will succeed in forcing Occupy New Haven off the New Haven Green, but the city is already estimating that, once it receives a final judicial thumbs-up to kick the Occupy protesters out, the total cost to clean up and restore the Green will run as high as $25,000, the New Haven Independent reported.

Meme attack. In the wake of the short-lived Yale Memes Facebook page, a number of tumblrs have sprung up parodying Yale life. One, #whatshouldwetapme, makes jokes about the society tap process; another, #whatshouldwecallyale, basically rehashes the jokes made and lol’d about on Yale Memes.

It’s here. Tonight is tap night for senior societies. Expect to see people in various suits, cloaks, masks and blinfolds, even though Dean of Student Affairs Marichal Gentry explicitly stated in an email to students earlier this week that blindfolds are banned. Tap night starts at 6 p.m. All tap activities must be completed tonight, according to Gentry.

THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY

1964 More than 750 Yale students block New Haven streets from 7 to 9 p.m. during a mass riot in honor of Kingman Brewster’s inauguration.